Babies and brides line up for 12/12/12

From brides to babies to Pope Benedict XVI, Wednesday's once-in-a-lifetime date has people buzzing about the number 12.

The day is the last of special dates of the past 12 years, and is the final time the day, month and year will be the same number until Jan. 1, 2101. As in past years, many have chosen to commemorate the the unique date with their own special day.

With an easy-to-remember anniversary date, many couples have chosen Wednesday to get married. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder has 147 marriages scheduled for Wednesday in its seven offices, almost all of which are at or near capacity.

Maggie Lien, assistant division manager for the public records division, said the agency opened offices that are normally closed on Wednesdays to accommodate for the rush in couples wanting to get married.

"It will be very busy all day," Lien said.

The number of wedding reservations with San Bernardino County for Dec. 12 has also skyrocketed, said Dennis Draeder, the assessor-recorder-county clerk.

On a normal day, eight to 10 people walk in, while the main county office had 64 reservations for 12/12/12 as of late Tuesday morning. An additional seven people had made reservations with the county's Hesperia office, Draeder said.

"They're picking the days that are unique, just like we saw with 11/11/11 last year," Draeder said.

Even though 12/12/12 falls on a Wednesday, some couples are still tying the knot in traditional fashion, which means wedding caterers and dress stores are ready to make it happen.

Barbara Boros, of Ontario Bakery in Ontario, said the cake and catering company has five wedding cake orders for Wednesday, in honor of the date.

"We normally don't get wedding cakes on Wednesday, but we do tomorrow," Boros said Tuesday.

In its annual "What's on Brides' Minds" study, wedding gown store David's Bridal found that 43 percent of brides it surveyed considered choosing an "iconic date" for their wedding. The store estimates more couples will marry Wednesday than on 11/11/11.

"Iconic dates have become a trend in the United States, reaching new heights when over 65,000 couples tied the knot on 07/07/07," Chief Marketing Officer Brian Beitler said in a press release. "12/12/12 marks the last triple number sequence of the century, so it has its own special significance."

The date is also a special one for a birthday, and many expecting mothers are lining up at local hospitals trying to stamp a 12/12/12 on their baby's birth certificate.

Beth Julian-Wang, an OB/GYN at Huntington Hospital, said she has three patients who have specifically requested a cesarean section or a labor induction on Wednesday.

"I have one patient who actually needs to have a C-section ... and early in the pregnancy she said, `Oh can I have it on 12-12-12?' so we scheduled it months ago," Julian-Wang said. "I think she just thought it was a cool birthday."

And she's not alone. Julian-Wang said Huntington's operating and delivery rooms are booked for the big day.

"I don't have any plans tomorrow besides delivering babies," Julian-Wang said Tuesday. "The hospital is prepared. They are making sure we have enough nurses because they know we are going to be busy."

The number 12 also has significance in the Jewish and Christian faiths from the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 apostles and the 12 pearly gates of Heaven, said Frank Ponnet of Holy Family Church in South Pasadena. The number, derived by multiplying the holy trinity and the four corners of the horizon, represents "fullness."

The number also comes into play in the book of Revelations, Ponnet said, which tells that 144,000 people will be saved, a figure symbolically derived from 144, or 12 multiplied by 12.

"People did intentionally look at numbers and created that out of what their beliefs were," Ponnet said. "So the representation of 12 is really kind of the fullness of the whole world, God and the horizon."

Pope Benedict XVI, who joined the Twitter-verse earlier this month (@Pontifex), is set to send out his first tweet Wednesday, though Ponnet speculated that may have more to do with the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe that falls on the same day.

The date also has mathematical significance, as 12 cubed - 12 X 12 X 12 - or 1728 - is an important number when dealing with elliptic curves in algebra, said Caltech spokesman Lawren Markle.

"There's something called a J-invariant that describes elliptic curves ... the number 1728 and the number zero are both interesting numbers," Markle said.

Aside from any deeper meaning, the date is also just an excuse to plan something special.

Lauren Maloney, catering manager at The Kitchen for Exploring Foods in Pasadena, said the date has been less popular for her company for weddings than 11/11/11, but many offices, families and organizations are having parties to honor the date.

"We have a lot of events," Maloney said. "One of the parties we are doing is called the 12-12-12 celebration at a law firm, there are a lot of holiday open houses and that kind of thing."

Chase Bank is sponsoring a Hurricane Sandy relief concert at 7:30p.m. Eastern Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, which will be broadcast in movie theaters and on television networks across the country.

Stone Brewery, based in San Diego, has released the final beer in its "Vertical Epic" series. The brewery, which recently opened a store in Pasadena, has released a special beer on each of the triple dates since Jan.1, 2001.

Former San Gabriel student Gerry Orz has organized a national "Day of Silence" Wednesday to promote bullying prevention in schools, with the help of State Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Ca ada Flintridge.

In the end, though, it won't be seen again in our lifetimes, 12/12/12 will no doubt live on in history.